Many houses can be improved by the addition of the right chandelier. These attractive lighting fixtures make a great focal point for any dining room, great room, or other larger, more formal area of the house. However, the wrong chandelier looks out of place and makes the whole feel of the room a little strange.
Whether your old Victorian home has a sleek, modernist fixture, or a simple Cape Cod home is burdened with an ornate brass model, the wrong chandelier looks out of character. That's why it's always important to choose a chandelier that goes with the general architecture of your house, not just your decorating scheme. Fortunately, if the past owners of your home were not so smart in their choices, or if you've never had this kind of fixture, you can find chandeliers in your local home and garden store.
Most large hardware and home stores have a lighting section. The exact selection will vary by retailer, but chances are that they'll have a good variety of chandeliers for you to choose from. You can even sometimes find a crystal chandelier at your home and garden store.
Of course, you should not by the first one you see. Your choices will often seem overwhelming when you first go shopping. You can choose from teacup chandeliers, crystal ones, stained glass chandeliers, quirky modern styles, and lots more. Plus, chandeliers are not just for dining rooms anymore. You can also pick out some for kitchens, bathroom, bedrooms – even foyers and breakfast nooks.
Of course, it's important to pick out a chandelier that'll keep a classic look, unless you want to replace it every single time you redecorate. The right size is also important, to keep your room from being overwhelmed, or the chandelier from seeming lost. Measure your room's width, and choose chandeliers from your home and garden store that are two inches in diameter for every foot the room is wide. That means you need a twenty-four inch chandelier for a twelve foot wide dining room. You can also add your room's dimensions together, and get a chandelier of that width: a twenty-four inch chandelier for a twelve by twelve rooms, for instance.
Remember that style can have an effect on apprentice size. Very ornate chandeliers look larger, and can appear to dominate a room they measure correctly for, or can do well in a room they might seem to small for. Ornate features offer a type of visual weight. Of course, if you're having a lot of trouble picking the right chandelier, just make a cardboard model, roughly to scale, and see how it looks. While this might seem silly, it can tell you whether a given chandelier at your home and garden store is too big, too small, or just right. That way, you can make the perfect choice.
